Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/368

 Wishing to conform to the instructions from England, and at the same time recognizing their impracticability, the Assembly in 1661 passed an Act compelling all vessels after reaching Virginia to make entry at Jamestown, but granting their masters and owners the right to obtain a license to engage in trade in any part of the Colony.

Previous to the appointment of collectors, the master of a ship which had just dropped anchor at Jamestown was expected to deliver to the authorities an invoice of the goods in his vessel when he reached Point Comfort. At one time he was required to certify his arrival to the Governor. When the rule compelling every ship discharging its cargo in Virginia to make entry at Jamestown fell into abeyance, it became the duty of the master to report his arrival to the officer in the waters of whose jurisdiction his vessel happened to stop, and his failure to do so exposed him to its seizure. Much complaint arose at one time that the captains who were under the necessity of going to the home of this officer in order to make a legal entry, after incurring great inconvenience and serious expense in the journey, very frequently failed to find him. This evil does not appear to have been corrected as late as 1689, the performance of the duties of the collectors being left to deputies. In the session of 1692-93, it was provided by an Act of Assembly, that the officers who were empowered to enter all ships arriving in the Colony should either themselves or in the persons of their substitutes, reside in the places which had been named as